Cripple and the Starfish
Encyclopedia
"Cripple and the Starfish" is a song written by Antony Hegarty
and performed by Antony and the Johnsons
, a Mercury Prize
-winning music act from New York City
. It first appeared as a split single
with a song from the group Current 93
and was soon thereafter released on Antony and the Johnsons
, the 1998 self-titled first album from Antony and the Johnsons. In 2003, a live version
of this song appeared on the split album
Live at St. Olave's
.
magazine:
While the song may have been featured in the above-mentioned stage production, the precise relationship between the two works -- and whether they were created together or if one is derivative of the other -- is not indicated.
center around the narrator's willingness to accept, and even encourage, abuse from a romantic interest. The chorus
says, in part, "It's true I always wanted love to be full of pain...I am so very, very happy, so come on and hurt me I am so very, very happy, so please hit me..." One critic wrote that "Cripple and the Starfish" is an example of how Hegarty informs "emotions with their opposites" and cited the lyrics "I always wanted love to be / filled with pain and bruises" as a way in which the writer-singer "transforms his songs into deliciously painful pleasures."
A reviewer for The Guardian
called this song "a majestic and poignant anthem about the unhelpful blindness of love in an abusive relationship" and said "It's about having your fingers cut off and them growing again, like a starfish. It's about coming back for more." Another critic deemed it "a redemptive love song", with "Antony creating a metaphor for the pain of love with the repeated lyric 'I grow back like a starfish.'"
, whose collaborations with Antony and the Johnsons helped booster the group's success, said of Hegarty, "When I first heard 'Cripple and the Starfish'‚ I knew I was in the presence of an angel."
In describing a 2000 New York Public Theater performance of Antony and the Johnsons at Joe's Pub
, a reviewer for Brainwashed
discussed the single
of this song stating that "since nothing is quite as fascinating as horror, I found myself returning repeatedly to "Cripple and the Starfish", and to my utter surprise discovered that I was hooked." That same year a reviewer for The Wire
praised the song's emotional impact by saying that it sounds "as baffling and as upsetting in its fuller CD context" as it did as a single.
In 2001, The Village Voice
mentioned this song as one which aptly demonstrates Hegarty's "Disarmingly childlike" stage presence which "twines innocence to decidedly polymorphous perversity." A 2003 review in PAPER Magazine named Cripple and the Starfish as among Hegarty's "gorgeous, crystal-pure tunes" that possesses "a silvery, sweetly masochistic intensity." In reviewing a 2004 appearance of the group at O2 Academy Islington, a reviewer for Mojo
magazine said that Hegarty "trills heartbreakingly" when performing this song.
In a review of a 2007 concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
which paired Antony and the Johnsons with the Brooklyn Philharmonic
, a reviewer for Rolling Stone
magazine wrote that Hegarty's older material was awakened with fresh vigor by the orchestra led by Nico Muhly
and "Already emotionally firm, songs like 'Cripple and the Starfish' brimmed with intensity under a simmering arrangement." In a review of a 2008 performance of Antony and the Johnson at the Apollo Theatre
, a writer for UGO referred to "Cripple and the Starfish" as one of the band's "classics."
Antony Hegarty
Antony Hegarty is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the band Antony and the Johnsons.-Early life:...
and performed by Antony and the Johnsons
Antony and the Johnsons
Antony and the Johnsons is a music group presenting the work of Antony Hegarty and his collaborators.-Career:British experimental musician David Tibet of Current 93 heard a demo and offered to release Antony's music through his Durtro label. The debut album, Antony and the Johnsons, was released...
, a Mercury Prize
Mercury Prize
The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize and currently known as the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for sponsorship reasons, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established by the British Phonographic Industry and British...
-winning music act from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It first appeared as a split single
Split album
A split album is a music album which includes tracks by two or more separate artists. There have been singles and EPs released in the same nature, which can be referred to as split singles and split EPs respectively...
with a song from the group Current 93
Current 93
Current 93 is an eclectic British experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet .-Background:Tibet has been the only constant in the group, though Steven Stapleton has appeared on...
and was soon thereafter released on Antony and the Johnsons
Antony and the Johnsons (album)
Antony and the Johnsons is the debut album by Antony and the Johnsons, released in 1998.-Releases:Originally, the album was released in 1998 on David Tibet's label Durtro...
, the 1998 self-titled first album from Antony and the Johnsons. In 2003, a live version
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
of this song appeared on the split album
Split album
A split album is a music album which includes tracks by two or more separate artists. There have been singles and EPs released in the same nature, which can be referred to as split singles and split EPs respectively...
Live at St. Olave's
Live at St. Olave's
Live At Saint Olave's Church was released in 2003 on the branch label PanDurtro of David Tibet's of Current 93's label Durtro.-Track listing:# Antony and the Johnsons - "You Stand Above Me" – 1:36# Antony and the Johnsons - "The Lake" – 4:48...
.
Origins
According to an article in MagnetMagnet (magazine)
Magnet is a music magazine which generally focuses on alternative, independent, or out-of-the-mainstream bands.-History:The magazine is published four times a year, and is independently owned and edited by Eric T. Miller. Music magazines with a similar focus in the 1990s era included Option,...
magazine:
As a student at UC Santa Cruz, Antony began writing, directing, producing and starring in musical plays. One of his first efforts was a John WatersJohn Waters (filmmaker)John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
-influenced melodrama called Sylvie And Meg. A more original production, staged a few years later in New York City, was titled Cripple And The Starfish. It’s set on a styrofoamStyrofoamStyrofoam is a trademark of The Dow Chemical Company for closed-cell currently made for thermal insulation and craft applications. In 1941, researchers in Dow's Chemical Physics Lab found a way to make foamed polystyrene...
island at the end of the world, after the land has been washed away by the greenhouseGreenhouse effectThe greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface, energy is transferred to the surface and the lower atmosphere...
floods. At this point in the far future, humans have evolved into robotRobotA robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
ic beings, and the plot concerns the only two people left alive who still have hearts. “And they’re dysfunctional and co-dependent,” says Antony.
While the song may have been featured in the above-mentioned stage production, the precise relationship between the two works -- and whether they were created together or if one is derivative of the other -- is not indicated.
Theme
The lyricsLyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
center around the narrator's willingness to accept, and even encourage, abuse from a romantic interest. The chorus
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
says, in part, "It's true I always wanted love to be full of pain...I am so very, very happy, so come on and hurt me I am so very, very happy, so please hit me..." One critic wrote that "Cripple and the Starfish" is an example of how Hegarty informs "emotions with their opposites" and cited the lyrics "I always wanted love to be / filled with pain and bruises" as a way in which the writer-singer "transforms his songs into deliciously painful pleasures."
A reviewer for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
called this song "a majestic and poignant anthem about the unhelpful blindness of love in an abusive relationship" and said "It's about having your fingers cut off and them growing again, like a starfish. It's about coming back for more." Another critic deemed it "a redemptive love song", with "Antony creating a metaphor for the pain of love with the repeated lyric 'I grow back like a starfish.'"
Reviews
One of Antony Hegarty's first and better-known songs, Cripple and the Starfish is often lauded by music critics and fellow musicians. Lou ReedLou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, whose collaborations with Antony and the Johnsons helped booster the group's success, said of Hegarty, "When I first heard 'Cripple and the Starfish'‚ I knew I was in the presence of an angel."
In describing a 2000 New York Public Theater performance of Antony and the Johnsons at Joe's Pub
Joe's Pub
Joe's Pub at Public Theater is a nightclub that hosts live performances regularly. The venue, which is a non-profit operation, is located at 425 Lafayette Street near Astor Place in Manhattan, New York City...
, a reviewer for Brainwashed
Brainwashed (website)
Brainwashed is a not-for-profit online music publication offering news and reviews of eclectic music. Over fifty people contribute to the archives of Brainwashed. Brainwashed hosts websites for many bands, artists and record labels...
discussed the single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
of this song stating that "since nothing is quite as fascinating as horror, I found myself returning repeatedly to "Cripple and the Starfish", and to my utter surprise discovered that I was hooked." That same year a reviewer for The Wire
The Wire (magazine)
The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...
praised the song's emotional impact by saying that it sounds "as baffling and as upsetting in its fuller CD context" as it did as a single.
In 2001, The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
mentioned this song as one which aptly demonstrates Hegarty's "Disarmingly childlike" stage presence which "twines innocence to decidedly polymorphous perversity." A 2003 review in PAPER Magazine named Cripple and the Starfish as among Hegarty's "gorgeous, crystal-pure tunes" that possesses "a silvery, sweetly masochistic intensity." In reviewing a 2004 appearance of the group at O2 Academy Islington, a reviewer for Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
magazine said that Hegarty "trills heartbreakingly" when performing this song.
In a review of a 2007 concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
which paired Antony and the Johnsons with the Brooklyn Philharmonic
Brooklyn Philharmonic
The Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, commonly known as the Brooklyn Philharmonic, is an American orchestra based in the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City...
, a reviewer for Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine wrote that Hegarty's older material was awakened with fresh vigor by the orchestra led by Nico Muhly
Nico Muhly
Nico Muhly is a contemporary classical music composer, who has worked and recorded with classical and pop/rock musicians. He currently lives in the Lower East Side section of Manhattan in New York City.-Early years:...
and "Already emotionally firm, songs like 'Cripple and the Starfish' brimmed with intensity under a simmering arrangement." In a review of a 2008 performance of Antony and the Johnson at the Apollo Theatre
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...
, a writer for UGO referred to "Cripple and the Starfish" as one of the band's "classics."